Frayed Knot

Edgy MD wrote: They were always looking for a leadoff hitter and a thirdbaseman and maybe with a little more attention to the bird in hand, they might've realized they had both those things all along. Garrett tallied nearly 1/4 of his career PAs in the leadoff spot and hit there more than any other single slot - so even the cretins in the pre-Sabremetric era couldn't have been totally unaware of his OBA skills. I guess the bigger question is why those skills and his career had all petered right around the time he should have been hitting his prime.

Cardinals lost last night so they remain in the lead of the Central and sit 2 games up on the twin WC contenders Pitt & Cincy The Nats still technically have a shot but with a 'Tragic Number' of 2 they need a whole string of miracles so that the playoff teams in the NL are pretty much set, the only question remaining to be settled is in which order. - Cards stay at home for the remainder with 3 vs Washington then 3 with the Cubs - Pitt heads to Wrigley starting tonight before the final shootout with the Reds - The Reds, of course, warm up for that showdown with 3 against the juggernaut that is your New York Mets

Texas, winners of 5 of their last 20, may be one of those on the outside looking in at the moment, but now it's their turn to play the Astros for three games starting tonight so maybe they're not quite dead yet. Houston has played or will play mostly contenders down the stretch, already have 105 losses in the vault and are 7-14 in September, 21-53 since the end of June. Tampa and Baltimore have one game left over to finish this afternoon before Tampa heads to the Bronx and Baltimore hosts Toronto. Cleveland has today off, then continues it's run through the dregs of the American League as they finish with 2 against the ChiSox then 4 at Minnesota. The other long shot (aside from, heh, heh, the Yanx) is KC but they have a chance to put a run together with 3 games in Seattle starting tonight followed by 4 at the White Sox. KC's 'Tragic Number' is 4. Yanx & Baltimore are at 3

Without looking anything up and just going by old memories, I remember Garrett as being awesome in Sept. '73. Which might turn out to be not so true, but I sorta remember it that way. From Chuck's post above: "Baseball Reference gives him a slash line [in September '73] of .323/.411/.604."

I had noticed Garrett's name popping up a lot as I've been reviewing these games. '73 was pretty much the best full season of his career anyway and those stats show that he certainly finished with a bang. One thing I've noticed in the past about Garrett, something that would have escaped notice of my young self at the time, is that the dude drew a ton of walks. His lifetime OBA wound up being 111 points higher than his BA (65 - 70 is about the norm) and he finished his career with more walks than Ks. If we could have taken modern weight-training techniques (even just the legal ones) to put a little more beef on that skinny redhead way back when he might have had an impressive career. As it was he got a decent 10 years in but was a bit light on power and was done as a full-timer by age 28 and for good before he hit 31.

[u:u4dsyqtl]September 22nd, 1973[/u:u4dsyqtl] A two--game (Saturday - Sunday) series starts at Shea with a visit from 3rd place St. Louis Jon Matlack responds with a complete game / 4-hit shutout. Mets also only get four hits but it�s Wayne Garrett�s 2R HR in the 3rd (his 2nd in 3 days) off Cardinal starter Reggie Cleveland that provides all the scoring in the game. Pittsburgh didn�t play this day (rain out?) so the 78-77 Mets lead the East by a full game at the end of the day. It�s also the first time the �73 Mets have been above .500 since they were 20-19 in late May. Cards & Expos are tied 2 games out of 1st; the Cubs are 2.5 btw, Time of Game = 1:55

Y'all do yourself a favor and remember to tune in 10-15 minutes before first pitch the rest of the way. Each WFAN broadcast opens with a montage not of the usual array of recent highlights but a handful of classic calls. So when I first read this bit about WFAN and classic calls, I'm thinking: you mean like classic phone calls? - Like maybe some vintage racist rants via 'Eli from Westchester'? - Or the best of 'Doris from Rego Park' coughing fits followed by; 'Thank you for your time and courtesy' ? - Or maybe some of the always popular; 'why doesn't Phillips trade Rey Ordonez for Manny Ramirez?'

Lots of SFG heros today in the Bronx - Pettitte had a no-hitter thru 5 but Ehire Adrianza (the guy whose name even Gary had trouble pronouncing the other day - that Keith did is just a given) HR'd with one out in the 6th to break up the no-no and tie the game at 1-1 - Pedro Sandoval who doubled to lead off the 8th - and then manager Bruce Bochy for immediately yanking Panda out of there for a pinch-runner and defensive improvement. That was the last batter that Pettitte would face. - Tony Abreu for doubling in the pinch-runner one batter later with the go-ahead score - SF reliever Santiago Casilla was also a hero today for keeping the Yanx off the board in the bottom of the 8th despite giving up three hits in the frame. With 2nd & 3rd and no one out, he got a grounder/out at home, then K'd Granderson. The 3rd out came when SF hero Juan Perez threw Cano's ass out at the plate from LF on a subsequent single. Nice of Cano, btw, to NOT advance to 3rd on the previous play at the plate. - And hero/closer Sergio Romo for his 1-2-3 bottom 9th, an act of heroism which denied a win for Rivera on Rivera Day (had Romo lost the lead) and ensured a loss to Pettitte despite his excellent outing in his final home start. Romo joins SF starter/hero Yusmeiro Petit [Hmmmm, Pettitte vs Petit ... small world] who had a rougher road than Pettitte but matched his one run allowed through 6-1/3 innings. And the bottom line is: one more game further from Tampa, one more further from Cleveland, no closer to Texas, got leap-frogged by KC, ... and one more day removed from the schedule. 4.5 behind Tampa 4.0 in back of Cleveland 2.5 behind Texas and 1/2 game behind KC and ahead of Baltimore And they've got to finish ahead of at least four of those teams.

Gary recapped and chatted about the Sept 20th game during Friday's telecast. Not sure if he talked about today's (21st) anniversary game.

When a 1960's radical decides to turn herself in for past crimes committed, it sets off a chain reaction involving others in her one-time circle, the FBI, and a reporter for an Albany, NY newspaper. Robert Redford directs and heads an all-star cast Susan Sarandon Julie Christie Nick Nolte Chris Cooper Terrence Howard Stanley Tucci Richard Jenkins Anna Kendrick San Elliot Brendan Gleeson Shia LeBoeuf

Yanx' win today means they both gain a game on and leapfrog the Orioles and Royals. But they get no closer to Tampa, Texas, or Cleveland who all came up winners today and one day more was removed from the schedule. On the other hand, they only have to catch TWO of those teams. Looks like their fate is going to be decided in the series with Tampa on Tues, Wed, Thurs TBR +0.5 CLE --- TEX -0.5 NYY -3.0 BAL -3.5 KCR -3.5

I was late in getting around yesterday to reviewing the September 20th game in 1973 and by the time I was about to Gary had done a much better job of summing it up than I could have AND he had the video to go along with it. That game, which was the one that planted the idea of looking back at the whole stretch run of �73, is obviously a big one to remember but I�ve always remembered the specific date as well. It was the same night as the Bobby Riggs/Billie Jean King match and it was the day Jim Croce�s plane went down outside of Nachitoches, Louisiana (if you don�t know who Jim Croce was, kids, ask your parents). And while neither one of those happenings were major events in my life, if you had asked me at any time over the last four decades when Croce died or what was the date of the King-Riggs match I could have told you the exact date without a moments hesitation. And whenever I hear that �all of America� was watching the made for TV / network televised / Cosell narrated tennis match in those pre-cable days where an event like that probably drew a 70 share, I think to myself: well not everyone was watching because I was watching (and then listening to after I got sent to bed) the Mets/Pirate game. September 21 The five game series concludes (on a Friday?!?) with Seaver getting his revenge from game 1 and the Mets thumping the Bucs 10-2 Four 1st inning runs off Steve Blass (who wouldn�t survive the inning) and 13 hits and 3 HRs (Staub, Milner, Garrett) altogether assured that the Mets would never trail. It was also the game that put the Mets into 1st place with a glorious 77-77 record. NYM --- PIT -0.5 StL -1.0 MON -1.5 CHC -2.5 PHI -9.0

I'm still not going to spend too much time crying for a team that had six starters, all of whom were on the roster from day one, start 149 of their 155 games.

Guys who have gone pole to pole: Dillon GeeLaTroy HawkinsDaniel Murphy That's it. Looking at that list reminds me of how much we've heard this year about the New York team that's been "devastated" by injuries. After all, the only guys they've had go wire to wire this season have been: Robinson Cano Vernon Wells Ichiro Suzuki Lyle Overbay Chris Stewart Austin Romine CC Sabathia Andy Pettitte Phil Hughes Ivan Nova David Phelps Hiroki Kuroda Mariano Rivera David Robertson Joba Chamberlin and maybe even a few more that I'm missing. They were still missing a few of the guys they preferred to have rather than some of the above, but still, such hardship it must have been to muddle through with only that crew available for each and every game.

Gwreck wrote: I had never heard about it until a few years ago when I got to see one on display.* It's as cool as described above. * I cannot remember exactly where. Can't remember where you first read about the golden ticket? It was probably in 'Willie Wonka'

And as a reward for their near 7-hour marathon last night, the O's & Jays have the 1 PM FOX game today.

I count that as only the 10th time this season that a 3-run/1-inning save has been botched and the Bucs picked a helluva time to do it. In fairness to Melancon it wasn't entirely his fault. One huge error and a two-run infield single that went off two different gloves contributed. But, still, he had two outs and only one run in and never finished the inning. That game had to be a bit of a killer for Washington as well. They won easily but wake up this morning the same distance from the WC#2 spot as they were before Friday's games. The Cardinals, meanwhile, do what they always seem to do: Get 16 hits and score 2 in the 7th, 1 in the 9th, then, after blowing a save, 1 more in the 10th to beat Milwaukee 7-6 And now they're back to a 2.0 game lead over two teams that have to battle each other for five more games while they only have the Nats to worry about sandwiched in between the Brewers and Cubs.

The Cleveland Indians: a) got to play Houston; and only had to go 7 innings thanks to some timely rain, in order to take over the 2nd WC spot last night. And they'd be in the lead for both SC spots had not Tampa won in the 17th inning over Baltimore. 7 hours and 21 pitchers worth of game Texas got 5-hit by KC and is now on the outside looking in after having gone from 3.5 up in their division to 7.5 out and currently out of both WC slots Yanx won because Fatso Sandoval couldn't turn a DP in the 7th inning of a tie game against a slow catcher. That led to an extended inning, which led to a walk to load the bases, which led to ARod's career record 24th Grand Slam. Too bad he's not clutch or else he'd really have a lot more. Jeter's ONE career GS clearly demonstrates his greater ability to come through in the big moment. TBR +0.5 CLE --- TEX -0.5 BAL -2.5 KCR -2.5 NYY -3.0

HahnSolo wrote: AND, Helton pulled off a hidden ball trick in the game. That's right, I did see that. Classic. Pirates tonight blew a 3-run lead in the 9th to Cincy. Second straight blown save for Melancon. Not sure how and how often they're using Grille these days. He's back off the DL but never regained his closer spot. In the middle of the Reds 9th inning rally was another PR appearance by Billy Hamilton. 1st pitch SB followed by scoring on an infield single. StL down 4-2 in the 7th in Milwaukee.

Zvon wrote: I heard the out at third on the radio. Philly radio is worse with Tekulve. Tekulve? He does Pirate games!

One bad inning don't spoil the whole bunch girl oh, give it one more try before you give up on Dice-Kay

David Wright's life is a movie Not really, but that was Joe Girardi's quote which got replayed often after Jeter hit a HR in NOT his first AB following a long lay-off. Jeet's HR (the only one he'd hit this year) was in his first AB in his second comeback of this season after he had missed just a week.

metirish wrote: Jay Horwitz ?@Jay_HorwitzPR Wilfredo Tovar will become the first Met to wear No.70 tonight in Philly. His family admired former. NYG/MLB Sam Huff, who also wore 70. Huff was always huge in Venezuela. From the way I hear it the guy couldn't eat dinner at a sidewalk cafe in Caracas without being constantly interrupted by fans.

The MFY narrative of Pettitte's HGH use has been: "he didn't do it for a competitive advantage, he did it to return quicker from an injury." That's all well and good. it also conveniently leaves out the fact that returning quicker from an injury IS a competitive advantage. It's like the Clemens defender I heard once: "Roger didn't take steroids, he just worked out much harder than anyone else" DUH!!! What do you think steroids allows you to do?!?!?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: This back page isn't aging well. Neither are the Phillies ... Ba-dum-Ching!